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Larsen & Toubro climbs EPC contractor ranking

24 November 2025

 

The oil, gas and petrochemical engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) sector in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) has enjoyed another strong year in historical terms.

This remains true even though the total value of awards in 2025 – $62.5bn as of the first week of November – looks set to fall short of the record highs of $86bn in 2023 and $95bn in 2024. The level of market activity nevertheless remains well above the long-term average of $46bn and the 10-year average of $50bn.

Looking beyond the top line, the most notable trend of the year is the outsized success of India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in securing many of the largest recent schemes in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. 

Chinese contractors have also made steady progress in increasing their market share. Some industry stalwarts, by contrast, have seen considerably less success.

While some of this can be attributed to the cyclical nature of tendering and more selective bidding by established players with already large order books, MEED’s ranking of total execution values bears out the broader trends.

L&T’s dramatic surge

The most dramatic shift in the EPC landscape over the past 12 months (Q4 2024-Q3 2025) has been a $12.7bn surge in awards secured by L&T. This rapid expansion of its value of work under execution to $25.4bn has brought the company to within one place of the top of MEED’s EPC contractor rankings – falling just shy of the $26.9bn currently being executed by Italy’s Saipem.

L&T’s recent successes include the March win of the $4bn combined package 4A and 4B (Comp4) of QatarEnergy LNG’s North Field Production Sustainability programme – the largest project awarded during the period. L&T also won the $2.5bn fifth natural gas liquids train (NGL-5) project from QatarEnergy, and four separate contracts worth more than $1bn each with Saudi Aramco.

These wins built on an already burgeoning order book – one that also includes the $3.6bn phase 2: package 1 of the Jafurah gas treatment facility, awarded by Aramco in September 2023.

L&T’s rise has also been helped by relative inactivity among other top firms. Both Saipem and Italy’s Maire Tecnimont achieved prominent ranking positions a year earlier after securing, respectively, the $8.2bn offshore and $8.7bn onshore packages of Adnoc’s Hail and Ghasha programme in October 2023. Those awards, together with other contracts, saw the two Italian firms secure roughly $12bn in awards each in a single 12‑month stretch, catapulting them up the ranking.

However, neither company has added significantly to their pools of work over the past 12 months, in sharp contrast with L&T, which has seized momentum in the regional contracting landscape. So far, L&T has displaced Maire Tecnimont to reach second place regionally; another year of even marginally comparable momentum should put it at the top.

Also notable is the gap between L&T’s total awards over the past 12 months and those of its nearest competitors. L&T’s $12.7bn in wins rivals the combined value of the next three largest EPC contractors. As a share of an estimated $70bn in total awards across the sector over the same period, L&T secured about 18% of the work.

The previous year, Saipem and Maire Tecnimont each secured closer to 12% of awards. This underlines L&T’s considerable momentum both in terms of its order book and market share growth.

Chinese push

Two other significant winners over the past 12 months are China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation (CPECC) and China Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC), which secured $5bn and $4.3bn-worth of awards, respectively.

These contracts wins have moved the two Chinese firms up into the top 20 EPC contractors. CPECC’s success is largely attributable to the niche it has developed in Iraq and Algeria, where about $4.4bn of its awards were won – led by a $1.6bn contract to deliver the central gas complex for Basra Oil Company’s Artawi development.

COOEC’s recent wins have been concentrated in the GCC, specifically on phases one and two of QatarEnergy’s Bul Hanine offshore oil field expansion, which are worth a combined $4bn.

The US’ McDermott and Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas – two long-term regional players – recorded the next strongest order-book additions, securing about $3.8bn and $3.4bn, respectively. McDermott’s new work includes the $2bn phase two of Adnoc Offshore’s Umm Shaif long‑term development plan and a $1.8bn contract to lay offshore pipelines and subsea power cables for QatarEnergy LNG’s North Field South programme.

The next five biggest bookers over the period were South Korea’s Samsung C&T and Samsung E&A, the UAE’s Lamprell and Target Engineering, and Qatar’s Doha Petroleum Construction Company (DOPET) – each securing more than $2bn.

Samsung C&T’s top award was for QatarEnergy’s $2.5bn carbon sequestration complex; Samsung E&A’s was for Taziz Chemicals’ $1.7bn methanol plant in phase one of its industrial chemicals zone.

Lamprell secured five separate contracts from Saudi Aramco, the largest a $1.5bn award for offshore infrastructure on the Zuluf development.

Target secured three UAE contracts, led by a $1.5bn award from Adnoc Offshore for phase five of its Das Island terminal facilities (part of the Lower Zakum long‑term development).

DOPET secured two contracts from QatarEnergy, led by a $2bn award for phase three of the Bul Hanine offshore oil field expansion.

Across the activity, it remains conspicuous how rapidly values fall away from the top winners and how concentrated the recent awards are with L&T. While the contraction in total award value may partly explain this dynamic, the broader trend is clear: the concentration of work with L&T makes it the company to watch in regional bidding rounds in the year ahead.

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John Bambridge

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